November 2, 2005 :: Kommersant :: News
On November 1 Russia conducted a major test of its new maneuverable warhead system and of its Topol-M (RS-12M1) ballistic missile system. The missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar facility in Russia, and traveled a relatively short distance to the Balkhash testing range in Kazakhstan.
An excerpt from
Kommersant notes that the launch trajectory was somewhat unique:
A RS-12M1 Topol-M intercontinental missile with the new warhead was tested in Kazakhstan yesterday. The launch from a mobile launcher was the sixth test of the system intended to overcome American antiballistic defenses. This was the first launch to take place not at the Kura testing ground at Plesetsk [sic] in Kamchatka, but at the Kapustin Yar ground, part of the Balkhash complex in Priozersk, Kazakhstan. The change was made began the radar system at Kura is in such poor condition that it would not be able to [monitor] maneuvers the warheads carry out after separating from the intercontinental missiles, while American facilities in Alaska would be able to. In Kazakhstan, the Russians were able to control everything themselves.
Strange Reporting
The reports on this test by major media outlets have, however, been remarkably contradictory. Some sources reported that the test was of the SS-25 Topol rather than the SS-27 Topol-M. Most said the missile was launched from Kapustin Yar; but Interfax quoted Strategic Missile Forces spokesman Colonel Alexander Vovk as saying that the missile was launched from the Plesetsk facility in northern Russia. Others still had initially reported it was launched from Kamchatka. (The Kommersant report quoted above oddly says that Plesetsk is on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, rather than in northern Russia.)
The reports on this test by major media outlets have, however, been remarkably contradictory. Some sources reported that the test was of the SS-25 Topol rather than the SS-27 Topol-M. Most said the missile was launched from Kapustin Yar; but Interfax quoted Strategic Missile Forces spokesman Colonel Alexander Vovk as saying that the missile was launched from the Plesetsk facility in northern Russia. Others still had initially reported it was launched from Kamchatka. (The Kommersant report quoted above oddly says that Plesetsk is on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, rather than in northern Russia.)
Strategic forces specialist Pavel Podvig says that the missile traveled from a mobile launcher at Kapustin Yar to the Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan, adding that “The launch was used to test missile defense penetration capabilities of the missile. The Sary-Shagan test site hosts a number of radars (for example, the Neman radar) that can provide detailed information about the signature of the warhead and various penetration aids carried by the missile.”
When one combines these contradictions with the fact that the test took place on an unprecedented trajectory, that the trajectory was chosen to avoid U.S. Alaskan-based radars, and that the test included an important demonstration of an allegedly exotic new reentry vehicle, one is led to speculate that the test is either shrouded in secrecy, shielded with deliberate deception, or that the reporting by the various Russian media outlets was unusually and coincidentally incompetent.
Additional Details
Yesterday’s test was also said to be the sixth of the system designed to circumvent missile defenses.
It is worth remarking that the coverage by Pravda, Kommersant, and others also unusually explicit on this occasion that the reentry vehicle is designed to avoid American missile defenses, as opposed to the generically “foreign” defenses usually referenced.
A summary of technical details of the Topol-M supplied by Pravda:
The length of the missile is 22.7 meters, it is 1.95 meters in diameter, the range ability reaches over 10,000 kilometers. The starting weight of the missile is 47.2 tons; the missile gathers speed a lot faster than all previous types with the help of its three engines. In addition, the missile performs unpredictable flight maneuvers owing to several tens of its auxiliary engines. Topol-M engineers say that the complex is totally immune to electromagnetic impacts.
Whether the “three engines” refers to the missile itself or the maneuvering or gliding vehicle, and whether the “tens” of auxiliary engines are on the main booster or the reentry vehicle are both less than clear.
Interfax cites a defense industry source suggesting that the Topol-M has been designed to have a much shorter boost phase for the specific purpose of evading defenses at that point:
This type of delivery vehicle has several advantages, the source said. “First, it reduces the duration of the first stage of the rocket flight, which is most vulnerable from the viewpoint of missile defence. But, what is even more important, it reduces the capabilities of the last line of the enemy’s air defence at a distance of 500-600 kilometres to zero,” the source said.
Russian analyst Aleksandr Golts discussed the warhead and test on the Ekho Moskvy radio program. An excerpt:
[Presenter] The Russian military has been given a nuclear warhead which can overcome the US missile defence system. The Defence Ministry has announced a successful test launch of a Topol-M missile equipped with the new warhead from the site of Kapustin Yar, Astrakhan Region. The US missile defence system will fail to stop the warhead. This is what military analyst Aleksandr Golts has told our radio station.
[Golts] According to specialists, it looks like this is some sort of gliding warhead. In space its flight obeys the ballistic laws. On entering the atmosphere, it begins to act like a cruise missile. If this is correct, the missile defence system will fail to work.
Golts’ observation that the “gliding warhead” would follow a normal ballistic path while still in space and that it would follow different physical laws, those of aerodynamics, only after it reenters the atmosphere would seem to suggest that the warhead and the system which delivers it would still be vulnerable in its boost phase.
(Article)» Xinhua on test
» RIA Novosti on Topol-M test
» Pravda on missile test
» Interfax on Topol-M test, warhead capabilities
» More stories on: Maneuverable Warheads, Russia, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: SS-N-6
» Missile system details for: Kapustin Yar Missile Test Complex
